


Life Might Have An Expiry Date But Love Doesn't

by kythen



Category: Gintama
Genre: F/M, Flash Fic, Minor Character Death, the romance that never was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1521710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Then and now, what he loves has never changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Might Have An Expiry Date But Love Doesn't

_"I left my heart behind in this drifting town_  
 _Losing fragments of courage along the way_  
 _If I'm alone, I'll just keep withering until the time when we meet"_

* * *

 

He had been in love with somebody before, in a place where the sun shone freely and the ground was warm under his bare feet. She was bright, beautiful and strong, and when she smiled, it was for everyone, not just him. But still, he knew she felt the same way about him, the both of them dancing around this thing called "love" until it all fell apart around them.

He left her for a better – although they didn't know what it was going to be like at first – life, keeping his distance away from her with words meant to cut. That was what he did best after all, cutting people down. Someone like him, with the lives of so many people stolen away with his sword, should never have gotten close to someone like her, who was meant to nurture and to love.

He left his heart in that village and never looked back again, fearing that if he did, all his courage would shatter into pieces and form a trail leading back to her. What he didn't know was that even if he didn't look back, the trail was already set by him, bleeding love all the way out of town and into the big city, where she could follow if she wanted to.

She did, even if she took her time about it, gathering up all her love and courage to step out of her home in search of him. Trails made of stones or breadcrumbs; those were easy to lose as they disappeared with time. But trails made with blood would never disappear, soaking into the very earth that they fell to and staining the path back to him a vibrant red.

But this is not a story with a happy ending. Her love was eternal, but her life was not. By the time she set foot on the very ground that he had walked on countless times since their separation, something in her body had already started its countdown, telling her that she had taken too long to follow and now her life was at its end.

 _But at the very least,_ she answered back, _I am here now, where he is._

"He's a jerk, you shouldn't waste your time on him." says her brother, all grown up in her absence, even if he tries to pretend that he hasn't. _Especially since you have so little time left, won't you spend the rest of it with me?_ He doesn't say the last part out, but she hears it anyway, as all sisters do.

"Don't worry, Sou-chan, I still love you the best." She strokes his hair, just like how she did in the past, just the way he wants it to be. _But I wish that that man would let me love him too._ She doesn't say the last part out either, but he knows it anyway, as all brothers do.

The man who she loves is stubborn to the end and even when her time is up and her heart expires, she never gets to see him again. Her brother, who is all grown up and battle-hardened from the city life, cries openly at her side, covered in soot and smelling like carnage. She knows what he had been doing, both him and that man and the rest of the Shinsengumi members in fact, and how it had all been for her and her last shot at happiness.

She wishes that they wouldn't put themselves in so much danger for her sake. After all, even if it was a short life she lived, it was still a happy one because she had lived it with all the people who she loved and who loved her back.

 _Although_ , she thinks, as she slips into peaceful unconsciousness, _it would have been nice if we had been in love with each other during the course of this life._

"Hey."

A voice reels her back, keeping her amongst the living for just for a while longer. It's not something spoken to her directly, and she doesn't think that the speaker himself knows that she can hear him, but it's something that she needs to hear before she goes.

And so she waits, forcing herself to stay until she hears what he says next.

"Don't you know? He's crying for you."

The last thread holding her back snaps and her consciousness is thrown out into the air, breaking into tiny fragments and dissipating into the night sky. But at the very least, she had gone knowing that at the very end, the timid love that had started back in a village with the sun and the both of them had never faded with the passing of time nor with the absence of either of them.

* * *

 

_"Crossing over the sunny sky, the colours of the heart become clear_  
 _Even though you're crying within, you smile softly_  
 _Although it's embarrassing to say it like this; you are... my heart itself"_

_[Signal – Kelun](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0gjuv8ysug) _

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for this fandom so please be kind to me.  
> (Also I am sorry for not keeping with the spirit of Gintama and the A grade comedy it provides.)


End file.
